Enfidaville War Cemetery, Tunisia

It was lunchtime when I pulled up outside the Enfidaville War Cemetery, around 100km south by road from Tunisia’s capital, Tunis. After parking the bike underneath a shady eucalypt, I dug out the bread and cheese I had in my backpack. As I ate, the Cemetery security guard wandered to the front gate, lit a smoke, and watched me with suspicion. A group of school kids walked by, calling out ‘hello’ in French, Italian and English. I called back ‘hello’ and they dissolved into laughter, egging each other on to speak to me.

After lunch I grabbed my camera and walked to the Cemetery gate. The security guard had lost interest and disappeared.

Within the Enfidaville Cemetery, 1551 Commonwealth Servicemen are buried. The majority are from the United Kingdom (1315), followed by New Zealanders (172), Canadians (38), Australians (11), South Africans (9), Indians (2) and four men from the High Commission Territories.¹

Walking along the lines of headstones, I found four of the Australians. Their headstones had been placed together, as is the custom with aircrew laid to rest in Commonwealth War Graves Cemeteries. Flight Sergeants Dawson, McIlroy, Sinclair and Turner.

These Aussies were destined to join the ranks of the ‘Odd Bods’; airmen of other nationalities serving with RAF squadrons during WWII.

Whilst training in England in 1942, Flight Sergeants Turner (Pilot), Dawson (Navigator) and Sinclair (Wireless Operator / Air Gunner) had a lucky escape. Part of No. 21 Operational Training Unit RAF, they took off in a twin-engined Vickers Wellington bomber from RAF Edge Hill, Gloucestershire, on a navigation exercise. Also on board was Sergeant Alan Allwright (Wireless Operator), a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Instructor Pilot Officer Stanley Baker RAF, and Sergeant Ronald Weeks (Bomb Aimer), RAAF.⁹

After navigation difficulties due to poor weather, the aircraft crash landed on Whitwell Moor, and although all crew survived, Turner, Dawson, Weeks and Allwright were injured in the incident.⁹

In 1943, RAAF Flight Sergeants Dawson, McIlroy, Sinclair and Turner were stationed with No. 40 Squadron RAF, flying Wellingtons from Gardabia South Airfield, Libya.⁴

Wellington bombers in North Africa targeted Axis troop positions, infrastructure and shipping to support Allied ground operations. In an interview with Imperial War Museum historians, Roy Hartwell, a Wellington bomber pilot who flew in North Africa with 108 Squadron RAF, described such an operation against an Axis airfield in Libya.¹⁰

On the night of 19th April, 1943, Flight Sergeants Dawson (aged 21), McIlroy (20), Sinclair (20) and Turner (23) climbed aboard Wellington bomber HZ248 along with Sergeant Gordon Allwright (18), who had been involved in the Whitwell Moor training crash. Their mission was to bomb the Soliman South airfield, part of a complex of Axis airstrips located 32km east-south-east of Tunis.⁴ At the time, Soliman was home to the Messerschmitt Bf 109s of Jagdgeschwader (Fighter Wing) 77.¹¹

With Flt Sgt Turner at the controls, HZ248 took off from Gardabia at 1750. When the 40 Squadron Wellingtons returned from the raid, the Australians and their English Air Gunner were missing. Other aircrews reported that two Wellingtons had been lost over the target; they were HZ248 and HZ146*.^4,12

HZ248 had been shot down by Oberleutnant Stefen Machat, a pilot of Nachtjagdgeschwader (Night Fighter Wing) 2.¹² Gordon Allwright**, and the four young blokes who were a world away from their homes in Brisbane, Kogerah, Northam and Sydney, were to remain forever in North Africa.

Turning from the four headstones, I spent some time walking through the rest of the cemetery as the afternoon shadows lengthened. Amongst the 1551 buried at Enfidaville, who had come from across the Commonwealth to fight in North Africa, I found the other Australians. I like to think that the tall eucalypts that line the front boundary of the cemetery are a comfort to them.

Although I only had a 30 minute ride to the coastal town of Hergla, and my accommodation for the night, I was keen to get there before dark. I left the cemetery, wondering if I had been the only visitor that day.

I have the good fortune to be visiting Tunisia by choice, and when I am ready to leave, I will return to my home country, family and friends. Lest we forget those that remain at Enfidaville, after giving their all for us.

*Wellington HZ146 was also crewed by a mix of Australian and British airmen. Warrant Officer G.R. Webb RAAF, Sergeant M.F. Mckeon RAF, Sergeant I.W. Sanderson RAF and Flight Sergeant L.N.Bain RAAF were killed on 19th April 1943. Flight Sergeant J.W.F.S Liley RAAF and Sergeant A.S. Quick RAF survived the crash and were taken as Prisoners of War.

**Sergeant Alan Gordon Allwright is commemorated at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Alamein Memorial, El Alamein, Egypt EL AL

¹Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 2024, Enfidaville War Cemetery

²Virtual War Memorial Australia, Dawson, Donald Norman

³Virtual War Memorial Australia, Ronald Bruce McIlroy

_⁴ RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum, 2024, McIlroy, Robert Bruce 413319

⁵Virtual War Memorial Australia, Walter Samuel Sinclair

⁶No. 1 Wireless Air Gunners School Ballarat, 2024, Sinclair, Walter Samuel

⁷Virtual War Memorial Australia, Turner, Anthony St Clair

⁸RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum, 2024, Anthony St Clair Turner 411193

⁹Clark, A, 2018, Wellington Mk.IC DV810 of No.21 OTU crashed 9th December 1942 on Broomhead Moor, Peak District Air Accident Research

¹⁰Wood, C., 1986, Hartwell, Roy William (Oral history), Imperial War Museum

¹¹deZeng, L.H., 2016, Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45 Tunisia

¹²Gunby, D., 1995. Sweeping the Skies: History of No. 40 Squadron, RFC and RAF, 1916-56, cited in Royal Air Force Commands, 2013, Wellington HZ248

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